Personality and self-esteem as predictors of young people's technology use
Open accessAbstract
We examined the role of personality and self-esteem in university students' (N = 200) use of communication technologies. More disagreeable individuals spent increased time on calls, whereas extraverted and neurotic individuals reported increased time spent text messaging. More disagreeable individuals and those with lower self-esteem spent increased time using instant messaging (IM). For addictive tendencies related to communication technologies, more neurotic individuals reported stronger mobile phone addictive tendencies, while more disagreeable individuals and those with lower self-esteem reported stronger IM addictive tendencies.
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Students with low self-esteem are more likely than those with high self-esteem to spend time using mobile phones and become addicted.
“Conversely, students reporting low self-esteem were more likely to spend time using mobile phones and become addicted than those reporting high self-esteem (Ehrenberg, Juckes, White, & Walsh, 2008).”
From Screen Media Overuse and Associated Physical, Cognitive, and Emotional/Behavioral Outcomes in Children and Adolescents: An Integrative Review (2022) · cites this paper as Ehrenberg, Juckes, White, & Walsh, 2008
The Introduction reports that lower self-esteem had been associated with higher and problematic mobile-phone use in earlier research. But this paper’s Results and Discussion associate lower self-esteem with greater instant-messaging use and addictive tendencies, not mobile-phone use or mobile-phone addictive tendencies; neuroticism was the only significant predictor of the latter. The study measured addictive tendencies, not whether students became addicted. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe frequency of morally challenging situations is directly related to moral courage among nurses.
“According to the studies of Huang et al. and Hauhio et al., there is a direct relationship between moral courage and the frequency of morally challenging situations (18, 30).”
From The global prevalence of social media addiction among university students: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [30]
The Materials and Methods and Results sections concern university students’ personality, self-esteem, and communication-technology use. Searches for moral courage, morally challenging situations, and nursing found no passage addressing the claimed relationship. (LLM, conf=0.78)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredOrganizational position is directly related to moral courage among nurses.
“according to a study conducted by Hauhio, there is a direct relationship between organizational position and moral courage (30).”
From The global prevalence of social media addiction among university students: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [30]
The Materials and Methods and Results sections concern university students’ personality, self-esteem, and communication-technology use, not nurses. Searches for moral courage, organizational position, nurses, and Hauhio found no relevant passage in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.78)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe level of education is directly related to moral courage among nurses.
“in the studies of Hauhio et al. and Pirdelkhosh et al., there was a direct relationship between the level of education and moral courage (10, 30).”
From The global prevalence of social media addiction among university students: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [30]
The Materials and Methods and Results sections examine university students’ personality, self-esteem, and communication-technology use, not nurses or moral courage. Searches for moral courage, nurses, and education found no passage addressing the claimed relationship. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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- Authors
- Ehrenberg, A., Juckes, S., White, K. M., & Walsh, S. P.
- Affiliations
- Queensland University of Technology (AU)
- ORCID
- White, Katherine M.
- Venue
- CyberPsychology & Behavior
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2008-12
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 739-741
- ISSN
- 1094-9313 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-8364
- OpenAlex
- W2099766360
- Cited by
- 488
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 45 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 47 · 2018: 47 · 2017: 49 · 2016: 41 · 2015: 36 · 2014: 35 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 27.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- eprints.qut.edu.au
- Locations
- CyberPsychology & Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Media and Digital Communication
- Keywords
- personality, self-esteem, technology use, university students, communication technology, mobile phone addiction, instant messaging, text messaging, telephone calls, neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Communication, Female, Humans, Male, Personality, Prospective Studies, Surveys and Questionnaires, Self Concept, Telephone, Prevalence, Internet, Cell Phone
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